With Alex Len drawing plenty of attention, Dez Wells could get more involved

Don MarkusThe Baltimore Sun

As his team struggles to score points, Maryland coach Mark Turgeon acknowledged Monday that it might be just as important for the Terps to put the ball in the hands of sophomore swingman Dez Wells as it is feeding it inside to center Alex Len.

With Maryland struggling to make its outside shots the past few games, opponents have been double and sometimes triple-teaming the 7-1 sophomore from the Ukraine, limiting him to 15 shots and 20 points in the past two games.

“That’s going to continue. We’re going to throw it into Alex tomorrow night and Boston College is going to throw two or three guys at him,” Turgeon said during an afternoon news conference in College Park. “Once we start hitting some shots, it will open it up for our big guys a little more.”

It appeared as if Wells ran the point a couple of times in the second half Saturday’s 62-52 loss at North Carolina since the 6-5 transfer seemed to be the only Terp capable of scoring. Wells finished with 21 points in Maryland’s third defeat in four games.

“He does that on the break. He gets the rebound or if he’s right by the big guy he’ll call for it. It’s kind of his deal,” Turgeon said. “I’d rather not do that unless he gets the rebound. He’s been told that, doesn’t adapt as quickly as I need him to. He’s good with it (getting to the basket). As long as he doesn’t try to plow over people, he gives us a chance.”

Turgeon said that he hasn’t given up on junior point guard Pe’Shon Howard, who committed seven turnovers and failed to score a point or register an assist in 14 minutes against the Tar Heels. Howard, who had led the ACC in assist-to-turnover ratio for most of the season, now has four assists and 11 turnovers the past four games.

Asked if Howard had “fallen apart,” Turgeon said, “I don’t think Pe’Shon fell apart. He really played great against North Carolina State. He was in there, he guarded [Scott] Wood, he was a big part of it. We’re not getting a lot of assists because we’re not making a lot of shots.”

Turgeon is not ready to give up on Howard, though sophomore Nick Faust (City) will continue to start at the point.

“Pe’Shon had a bad game,” said Turgeon, a former point guard at Kansas. “He knows it. Next play, we’re moving on. Pe’Shon has done a lot of great things for us and he’s going to do a lot of great things in the future. He just had a bad game.”